William C. McAlister. When
William C. McAlister was elected a member of the State Senate in 1912
from the Twenty-fourth Senatorial District, he brought to that body
not legislative experience but a reputation as a thoroughly
successful business man and certain definite aims and purposes
formulated as a result of his residence in the old Choctaw Nation,
and has proved an exceedingly valuable member of both the Fourth and
Fifth Legislatures.

William C. McAlister
was born in Marlboro County, South Carolina, in 1870, a son of
Charles A. and Emily McAlister. The family is of Scotch origin, and
the ancestry is traced back to a prominent clan in Scotland. Charles
A. McAlister was a soldier in the Confederate army, serving with a
regiment raised in South Carolina, his native state, and acted in the
capacity of courier. Senator McAlister has a brother, A. G.
McAlister, who has been on the Superior Court bench in Arizona since
the admission of that state to the Union, and is a resident of
Solomonville. Another brother, C. A. Jr., is secretary of the Mallary
and Taylor Iron Works at Macon, Georgia. There are two sisters, one
of them married, both living in South Carolina.

Senator McAlister
received his fundamental education in the common schools of his
native state. In 1895 he was graduated from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, with the degree Bachelor of Arts. The
following year he took a law course in the university and in 1896 was
admitted to the bar. He soon saw, however, that the law would
not satisfy his active temperament and instead of taking up practice
he began teaching. His first school was in the town of Monroe, North
Carolina, but a year later he came to Texas and for three years had a
position in the city schools of Emus. During the succeeding three
years he was superintendent of schools at Texarkana, Arkansas, but
abandoned that profession at the end of his last term there. Since
1908 Mr. McAlister has been one of the stirring business men of Hugo,
engaged in the contracting business. He has found this a field
affording full scope to his energies and has been successful both in
the development of engineering ideas and from a financial standpoint.
His work has been confined largely to bridge and re-enforced concrete
construction, and most of his contracts have been with municipalities
and railroads.

Mr. McAlister was
married in 1906 to Miss Jewel Hill of Ennis, Texas, daughter of a
Texas pioneer. They are the parents of two children: William C. Jr.,
aged seven; and Carl Hill, aged five. Mr. McAlister is affiliated
with the Masonic Order and with several minor orders.

His only political
aspiration before he became a candidate for the State Senate in 1912
was satisfied when he was elected a member of the Board of Education
at Hugo, a position he filled for several successive terms. Having
been a teacher, he was ambitious that the public schools of Oklahoma
be raised to the highest possible standard and it was with definite
convictions and ideals along this line that he entered the Fourth
Legislature. During that Legislature he was especially alert in
educational matters, and advocated a number of bills that were
designed to improve conditions and institutions in the state. He was
a member of the Committee on Education. Within his district lies a
part of the hunting and fishing region of the Kiamichi Mountains, and
that has caused him to take interest in legislation pertaining to
fish and game. In common with other legislators from the old Choctaw
Nation region, Senator McAlister has been much concerned on the
subject of construction of good roads. Owing to the fact that Indians
own a large per cent of the land in that part of the state and that
it is not subject to taxation, it has been one of the most serious
problems confronting local authorities and the Legislature how to pay
for the building of roads. During the Fourth Legislature Senator
McAlister was a member of the sub-committee on education that
codified the school laws of Oklahoma.